Bethany UCC

There were a lot of bells and whistles, and musicians, and candles, and decorations, and kids, and people, and shadow puppets* on Christmas Eve but the story is always the same: it’s about God’s embarrassing attachment to us, and the unnecessary lengths they’ll go to, out of love.

This week, Pastor Rebecca preached on Psalm 130 , which isn’t a reading you typically hear on the 4th Sunday of Advent. But, with our worship this month centered on Keeping Watch, this reading reminds us that God is listening and God is on the way, as sure as the morning is coming.

In his sermon this week, Vince grapples with the privilege of being reliable, and what it means to let go of control and really wait on God.

On Sun, Dec 7, Pastor Rebecca preached about the obligations we may incur by keeping watch. She preached on Deuteronomy 22: 1 - 4 and referenced the poem Every Riven Thing by Christian Wiman . We hope you enjoy!

Many of us in Chicago have spent the last two months on high alert, on watch for danger. But what is it we’re watching for in Advent? What is the vigilance that saves us?

In which we end and celebrate our stewardship campaign and November series, both called Free-for-All with a litany of thanksgiving from Bethanian Dave Scott, and some interstitial preaching from Pastor Rebecca from Ephesians 3 . You’ll also hear the laughter, cheers, and noisemakers from the congregation. It was truly a free-for-all to end all free-for-all’s.

Using Genesis 1 and the Exodus story, as well as a heavy dose of inspiration from the Neo-Futurists and Rev Will Bouvel, Pastor Rebecca preaches our first free-for-all sermon — which really lived up to its name.

Does Vince believe in levitation? He wants to! Preaching on Matthew 19: 16-26 , his sermon asks: what value is there in believing in the impossible?

Perfect pitch is rare (although maybe not as rare as you’ve heard…), but relative pitch is all you need, and widely available. Using a passage from Psalm 119 , and a poem she worried was too sexy for worship, Pastor Rebecca preached that *spiritually* the best any of us can do is relative: listening to God, again and again, reminding us of the tonic, the root chord, “do ti do.” That’s home. And th...

William Billings’ song AFRICA was a greatest hit of the 18th Century. A banger. It’s a shapenote song, aka Sacred Harp, aka “the heavy metal of the pre-Civil War era”. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is one of Pastor Rebecca’s heart songs; just one of the many, diverse ways God has given us to sing about Their faithfulness.

Pastor Rebecca knew she was walking a fine line by comparing our relationship with God to our animals’ relationship with us. But the longer she thought about it, the more it seemed worth considering…

 Pastor Vince is basic...but so is everyone else! We are merely human- that’s the bad news. The good news is: merely human means being filled with the glory of God.

Do you remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked what he’d need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him: you know, just sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and follow me? And then how he went away sad? This sermon is not about that.

We're so glad Pastor Vince is back with us and feeling better! Starting with a humorous anecdote, his sermon preaches on the nature of suffering, and how as Christians, we find belonging when we can listen and respond to it.

After a month of Red Flags, Pastor Rebecca finally preached about green flags (!) — the ones we need and the ones we have to offer, as a church.

Rev Dr. Katie Hays brought us greetings from Galileo Church (a Disciples congregation on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas) and a dispatch from “the badlands,” preaching that in the Gospel reading (Luke 9:57-62), Jesus waved his own red flags.

As part of “Red Flags” worship theme for August, Pastor Rebecca’s sermon this week centered on regret: the regret of a lost love, the regret of electing the wrong leader, and even the regrets of God themself. Focusing on 1st Samuel and an anecdote about time travel, she reminds us that the only path is forward.

Pastor Rebecca, in an attempt to contextualize the book of Daniel, threw some unexpected shade against the musical Hamilton.... Mostly, though, her sermon was about the good news that the empires of this world are always and ever teetering on the edge of collapse.

Anyone who knows former student pastor and Bethany member Kelli Manning might be surprised to know that she was once hugely self-conscious. Well, she didn't manage, understand, or grow through it on her own. It required caring and collective curiosity. Preaching from Numbers 22, she encouraged us likewise to journey together: "When people ignore or don't know to look for repeated warn...

Pastor Vince apologizes right at the start of this sermon for biting off more than he can chew research wise (Epistemology! Geology!) By the end, he shares an invitation to ground ourselves in the certainty of God’s power and care.

Preaching on the story of the shipwreck in Acts 27, Pastor Vince describes baptism as a means of confronting the powers of evil, choosing sides and facing our own mortality.

Pastor Vince’s sermon this week shares that God doesn’t ask us for extravagant gestures. Rather, they ask that we do what little we can and trust God to make more of it than we can imagine.

Pastor Rebecca's sermon centers the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which was organized in 1987 with an absolutely singular mission: direct action to end the AIDS crisis. In the face of neglect, negligence, indifference, they behaved badly to save lives — a move that may sound familiar from stories about Jesus.

Examining Psalm 9 and 2 Samuel, Pastor Rebecca delivers a sermon on doing the right thing even when your actions seem fruitless.

Reflecting on her days at summer camp, Pastor Rebecca's sermon this week describes the experience of being changed as a result of getting "swept up" in a movement.